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[TR] Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete / Ridge 5.8 IV 8/9/2009


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Trip: Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete / Ridge 5.8 IV

 

Date: 8/9/2009

 

Trip Report:

Myself and Deverton climbed Serpentine Arete car to car sunday. I haven't done a ton of long alpine routes and I definitely learned some lessons on this one. I felt the route had 5 great pitches, but the looseness (comparable to cascade volcanoes in the summer) of the upper pitches really detracted from the total quality of the climb. Shortly after the fun crux pitches things became a slog just to get off the peak. I am hard pressed to reccommend this route to others unless you really want a low 5th class adventure. The descent down Aasgard pass also detracted from the overall adventure. We were expecting a little more of a real trail to descend (at night with one headlamp, Aasgard is sketchy to descend). The positive thing to come out of this was that we brought enough food and water for the whole adventure. I think this is the first time that has hapened for me personally. (probably means we brought too much, huh...)

Notes for next time:

dont let the stoner be in charge of the alarm (he went back to sleep and got us up way late,

always bring 2 headlamps,

bring less shit,

anticipate more time for approach,

simul climb on shorter rope lengths (60m = way to much drag on low 5th class),

dont do it car to car; it hurts,

Oh, and make sure your ride waiting back in icicle doesn't have to be somewhere on monday early; they left without me and took all my stuff. I had to take the train back to OR. Fuckers.

 

Over all a helluva adventure, but no pictures unfortunately.

 

Gear Notes:

2x #.75-2 BD, 1x green alien, nuts, #3 BD, gold link cam, lots of alpine runners, ice axes, descent trail topo and route topo, 1 gal water for 2 people, lots of snackies.

 

Approach Notes:

3 hrs in + 45 min of scrambling to the base of the climb from the lake.

 

Descent Notes: 5 rappels off the back side, 30 min hike to Aasgard pass, plan more time for the descent than you think and REALLY avoid making the descent at night as routefinding is not so easy.

 

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5 rappels on the descent? Unless you rapped the snow field, you can do all the descent with walking.

 

serpentine is not as bad you make it sound. It is a good first "big" route and worthy. If you have had a more reliable ride home, maybe you would be less grumpy about the route.

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Yeah, 5 raps?! Dragontail's descent is nothing more than a particularly tame walk off--no rapping required; wonder where you got turned around? I agree with Gene--I think the route is much better than the picture painted by your TR. Not N. Ridge of Stuart quality, but pretty fun, nevertheless.

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It's been a long time, but I sort of share the assessment of that route: a few good pitches and a long not so great upper part. I've done four routes on Dragontail and that one was my least favorite, for all that the couple pitches on the pillar were wonderful.

 

I recall it as a walk off the backside too, though my last trip up there left us on top of the NE Towers which do require a couple single rope raps to hit the walking terrain.

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I think it's a fine route if you go into it expecting:

 

1) A fairly long day overall

2) Some great pitches for the first 1/3 of the day

3) Lots of easy simulclimbing on rock of varying quality

 

Shortening your rope (i.e. 100 feet or perhaps less) for the upper sections diminished rope drag and improves communication greatly for the upper section. Beware of rope-inflicted rockfall as the rope drags across stacked blocks and loose flakes on the low angle ledges.

 

As for the descent:

 

It's an easy walkoff in good conditions. When it's icy (later season, like probably now) some parties rappel down to the lower snowfield rather than carry ax and crampons up the route.

 

I found the hardest part of this route to be getting on the rock from the ever-retreating Colchuck Glacier. We had to climb some steep glacier-polished rock which was a little wet and cross by the waterfall to gain the dark black rock leading up to the tower and the great pitches.

 

Overall, I recommend the route as a good one if you know what you're in for and get an early start. It's a "light" grade IV, considering that Backbone (much harder and more technical, 5th class sections) is also called a grade IV.

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We topped out to the left of the true summit (as the guide says to) and then found a cairn within 150 ft with rap slings. We saw a series of old steps on the glacier leading to the ridge quite a ways to the east but we didnt see a quick way over there (weren't looking too hard either once we found the raps). Oh well. Now I know.

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